Requirements for approved training and equipment

If you are going to use plant protection products both outdoors and in and around greenhouses, you only need to have undergone one of the basic training courses. But you will have to supplement it with a specialisation day and an expanded examination.

If you already have approval for outdoor use, you do not need to undergo training for treatment of stumps against root rot. The training you have is sufficient to be permitted to treat stumps. If you do not have approval for outdoor use, you need to undergo an e-training course on root rot and to obtain approval for the specific use. You can register for the course via the course catalogue.

• Registration for the e-training course on root rot (via the Course Catalogue) – in Swedish

If you are a distributor or salesperson of plant protection products or if you are inspecting sprayers, you must be authorised to use plant protection products outdoors. You can obtain authorisation by undergoing four-day basic training arranged by the county administrative boards.

In Sweden, use of class 1 and 2 plant protection products is a regulated occupation. This means that Swedish law governs the requirements for your being permitted to work with plant protection products. If you have training or experience from your home country of using plant protection products, you may also do this work in Sweden. Different requirements are made on you depending on whether you are intending to become established in Sweden or work here temporarily.

Temporary professional practice in Sweden

In order to be allowed to use plant protection products in Sweden, it is required that you are established in another country in the European Economic Area (EEA) or in Switzerland where the profession is also regulated.

If the profession is not regulated in your home country, you are instead required to have used plant protection products for at least a year in one or more other EEA countries or in Switzerland during the past ten years.

If you comply with the above requirements and you only intend to work here for short periods, you do not need approval from the Swedish Board of Agriculture. This means that you do not need to submit an application.

In the case of temporary practice, you must use the same professional title in Sweden that you use in your home country. The title must be written in the language of your home country.

Establishment in Sweden

If you are planning to move here to work for a longer period, it is considered that you are establishing a business in Sweden. To become established as a user of plant protection products, in Sweden, it is required that your professional qualifications are recognised. The Swedish Board of Agriculture is responsible for approving this and for authorising use of plant protection products.

• Application for approval of professional qualifications for use of plant protection products
  

The Swedish Board of Agriculture approves pesticide application equipment in Sweden. The test is carried out by an authorized inspector and the test report has to be submitted together with the application when the owner of the spraying equipment applies for approval.

If you want to become an authorized inspector in Sweden you need to be certified for use of plant protection products in Sweden.

If you are legally established and hold a certificate from another EEA country or Switzerland to use plant protection products, your qualifications can be recognized here.

• Application for approval of professional qualifications for use of plant protection products

If you wish to inspect pesticide application equipment in Sweden you need to notify the Swedish Board of Agriculture first.

• Notification to inspect pesticide application – in Swedish

When you have had your qualifications approved and the notification has been acknowledged by the Swedish Board of Agriculture you are registered as an inspector. You will then have access to Swedish testing protocols and stickers.

Inspectors can give their consent to have their contact details listed on the website of the Board of Agriculture together with other details such as if they are specialized on a specific sprayer brand. The list of inspectors can be found further down on this page.

Inspections are required to be performed according to standard SS-EN ISO 16122:2015 agricultural and forestry machinery – Control of equipment in operation or an equivalent method. For the time being it is also allowed to use the earlier standard EN 13790 as an equivalent method for inspection.

Requirements on the documentation of an inspection

Inspectors of pesticide application equipment in use are required to document the result of the inspections in a test protocol. Protocols shall, unless the inspector and spray owner agree otherwise, be delivered in an electronic format to the owner of the sprayer.

The test protocol has to include the following information:

1. The type of equipment.
2. The manufacturer of the equipment, serial number and year of manufacture or a note if this information it is not possible to identify.
3. The method used to assess the distribution equipment, for example by reference to a certain standard.
4. The elements listed in annex II of the sustainable use directive and, for each part of the application equipment, indication of whether the requirements are met, not met or not applicable. Reasons for stating that an element is not applicable can be that the type of application equipment lacks that specific part and if the requirements laid down in annex II, first and second subparagraphs are still fulfilled.
5. The result of the test summary stating if the equipment has passed the test (no errors) or not (disqualifying errors).
6. The number of the sticker that has been attached to the application equipment.
7. The name, postal address and telephone number of the owner of the sprayer and the inspector.
8. Date of the inspection.
9. The inspector's signature.

If you inspect sprayers in Sweden, use Swedish stickers. The sticker shall be placed on the sprayer by the inspector when the inspection is completed. Do not place the sticker on top of another sticker less than 6 years old. The number on the inspection sticker shall correspond to the number on the protocol.

Sprayers inspected in other EES countries or Turkey

A sprayer that is inspected and approved in another EES-Country or Turkey may be accepted in Sweden. The conditions are that the inspection has been carried out by an authorized inspector and in accordance with the harmonized standards or a method corresponding to these. The owner of the sprayer can then apply for an approval by appending the protocol to his or her application of approval.

If you are unable to undergo further training arranged by your county administrative board or the Swedish Board of Agriculture when your permit of use is about to expire, you should in the first place undertake training at another location.

If you are unable to participate in the training course arranged this year, for example, because of illness, you may apply to us for a derogation. A prerequisite for being able to apply is that you have previously undergone a basic training course and that there are special reasons preventing your attendance. In your application for a derogation, you must state your name and address and contact details and state the special reasons you have for not being able to participate in the course of further training

The derogation applies for at most a year. The application for derogation should be sent to us, preferably by email.

• jordbruksverket@jordbruksverket.se

Jordbruksverket
Miljöregelenheten
551 82 Jönköping

There are two different kinds of safety distances that you must take into consideration when you are using plant protection products: fixed safety distances and adjusted safety distances.

Fixed safety distances

Fixed safety distances are to prevent plant protection products from spreading due to water movements in the ground and on the ground surface.

When spreading plant protection products, you must apply at least the following safety distances:

• 2 metres to open ditches, rainwater wells and drainage wells
• 6 metres to lakes and watercourses (such as streams, large and small rivers, canals, temporary ponds, wetlands, marshes, small lakes, damp land surfaces – wet areas, temporary wetlands, cold sources, marl pits and ditches)
• 12 metres to drinking water wells.

Adjusted safety distances

In addition to the fixed safety distances, persons using plant protection products must also determine and comply with adjusted safety distances to water sources, lakes, watercourses and surrounding land. You adjust the safety distances in accordance with the circumstances at the location when you are spreading plant protection products.

You must particularly take into consideration

1. temperature, wind conditions and other weather factors at the location
2. the intended extension of the spraying area in the direction of the wind
3. the characteristics of the plant protection product
4. the sensitivity of the surroundings to the product
5. the exactness in the spraying method used.

You can take into consideration the parameters listed in point 1-5 by using

• Guide for adjusted safety distance when using agricultural sprayers with booms
• Guide for adjusted safety distances in orchards
  
• A tool for determining safety distances – in English

When you fill up and clean spraying equipment, you must observe at least the following safety distances:

• 30 metres to open ditches and to rainwater and drainage wells
• 30 metres to lakes and watercourses
• 30 metres to drinking water wells.

A shorter safety distance can be acceptable if you fill up and clean the sprayer on a surface where it is possible to collect residues of plant protection products, for example a sealed surface with a collection device or container or a biobed that can break down the plant protection products. In these cases, you must leave at least

• 15 metres to open ditches and to rainwater and drainage wells
• 15 metres to lakes and watercourses
• 15 metres to drinking water wells.

However, you must maintain 30 metres safety distance if you fill up and clean the sprayer in the field, i.e., on arable land or a grassed area, as this is not considered to be a safe location.

You must never fill up or clean a sprayer on permeable spaces, for example, a gravel courtyard or a hard-made surface draining to surrounding land.

It is prohibited to use plant protection products professionally without special approval in these locations:

• at sports and recreational facilities
• during ground levelling and civil engineering works
• in road areas and on gravel surfaces and other very permeable areas
• on asphalt or concrete or other hard material.

Family members or private individuals who do not work in the business may not spray plant protection products professionally on areas pertaining to the business without permission. This also applies to class 3 products which can ordinarily be used without a permit.

Before you apply for approval, you should have worked in a preventive way to avoid problems with pests, diseases or weeds. You should also have investigated whether there is any other suitable method instead of using chemicals, for example, mechanical or thermal methods. Thermal methods are when you use heating such as steam, flammation or hot water.

Derogations in the case of point treatment

You do not need approval from the municipality if you are to carry out point treatment. The plant protection product must not then be applied beyond the plant you are treating. This means that treatment may be performed without approval on leaves, the trunk, stump or root system at a time by notching, painting, wiping or another similar method. If a fungal attack on a grass surface is involved, the area may be at most a square metre.

You do not need special allowance from your municipality if you are going to make a point treatment against invasive alien species on road areas or on railway embankments.

There are derogations for the following types of sprayers, which do not require approval:

1. equipment which is designed to be carried completely by the person spraying, for example, backpack sprayers, handheld sprayers and shower bottles
2. newly manufactured CE-marked spraying equipment from an EEA country or Turkey (the derogation applies for the first three years). Example: A sprayer purchased on 3 May 2023 may be used until 3 May 2026. You need a new approval to use it from 4 May 2026.
3. equipment on forestry machines to treat stumps
4. equipment to treat plants by dipping for future planting
5. seed treatment equipment, for example, the equipment in a potato planter that treats the potato just before it is planted
6. equipment to transfer the plant protection product directly to the surface to be treated by contact, for example, contact applicators and wipers that place the plant protection product on stumps
7. fogging equipment, both hot and cold fogging equipment

If your sprayer is of a type with a derogation from the requirement for approval, you do not need to send an application to us for approval. However, retain the receipt or similar so that you have something to show in an inspection.

When you spray basic substances

As long as you spray basic substances, you do not need to have an approved sprayer. However, it may still be good to know that the sprayer spreads the product evenly and is working as intended.

Are you uncertain whether the sprayer requires approval when you are going to use it? Contact a performance tester or us at the Swedish Board of Agriculture and we will help you with you this assessment. We make these assessments on the basis of the rules.

We consider that you do not need to test the equipment in the following cases:

• If you use the sprayer to apply liquid fertilizers. It is then a fertilizer sprayer.
• If you prevent snails using granules and you use a solid fertilizer distributor that does not have a specific spreading table for snail prevention in the instruction manual. A spreading equipment is intended to distribute plant protection products. If there is no spreading table, the mineral fertilizer spreader is not intended for spreading plant protection products and therefore does not fit the definition of the type of equipment that should be approved.
• If you purchase a used sprayer that has been approved by us and the approval is still valid. The approval is associated with the sprayer and not its owner. To be on the safe side, you should check that the sticker number is the same as the number in the approval.

There are international standards for inspection of boom sprayers, fan sprayers and most sprayers in greenhouses. The inspections are based on these standards when checking the sprays. A Swedish inspection has three main components:

1. Checking the performance of the spray

We check that the various parts of the spray function well, that there is no leakage and that the spray produces the expected result. The following parts are covered by the test:

• power transmission
• pump
• mixing
• meters and controls
• pipes and hoses
• tank
• filter
• boom
• nozzles and dripping
• distribution of spray
• fan on fan sprayers.

2. Repair faults

If you as owner of the sprayer so wish, the performance tests can repair any defects and adjust the sprayer in connection with the test.

3. Information and advice

The inspector can advise you about, for example, calibration of the spray and settings to provide you with the desired spreading of the plant protection product. The performance tester can also give you advice on how to check the sprayer.

• Brochure: What to think about before the performance test – in Swedish

When your sprayer has been tested, it will receive a sticker to show that it has been inspected but not that it has been approved by us. When we subsequently approve the sprayer, it is the number on the sticker which associates the sprayer with the decision of approval. The sticker is used because there are old sprayers without a serial number.

The municipalities check that the sprayers used for spraying plant production products have been approved by us. The checks are included in the environmental supervision of agricultural enterprises that the municipalities already carry out. If the municipality sees during their inspection that you have used spraying equipment that has not been approved by us, you will have to pay an environmental penalty fee.